Available now for preorder, and officially out next month, my newest book: The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Teen Anxiety. Written with Sheri Turrell and Mary Bell. From New Harbinger Publications. Also available, of course, from...

"Chris McCurry - clinical child psychologist and author"

See pages below for more information on upcoming book and private therapy practice.

Books by Chris McCurry

Books for Parents

I am pleased to be a part of an exciting series of illustrated books for parents and their children. Each has the subtitle beginning with “Big issues for little people… ” an cover topics of Health and Well-Being, Divorce, Identity and Diversity, and Behavior and Manners. They were written with my wonderful coauthor, Dr. Emma Waddington and illustrated by the amazing Louis Thomas. Published by Francis Lincoln Children’s Books, London.

Learn More About These Books at the Quarto Knows Website

My First Book

In 2009 I published my first book: Parenting Your Anxious Child with Mindfulness and Acceptance, from New Harbinger Publications.

Parenting Your Anxious Child

Click image for more information at Amazon.com.

In this book I apply Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to the problems parents face when their child becomes worried or afraid. This book provides a new way to think about your child’s anxiety, one that emphasizes the attempts at communication and help-seeking which underlie much of his anxious behavior. I look at the “dance” between parent and child when the child’s means of communication and help-seeking evoke similar feelings of anxiety, helplessness, frustration, and even anger in the parent. The result can be a cycle of desperate and unpleasant reactions and counter-reactions, of avoiding important tasks and challenges, and unhelpful attempts at controlling one’s emotions and one another. This book will help you break this cycle and establish a new dance; one that promotes good communication, self-control in the face of strong thoughts and feelings, and better problem-solving and resilience within the family.

Books for Clinicians

Summer of 2015 saw the release of my second book, this one for clinicians: Working with Parents of Anxious Children: Therapeutic Strategies for Encouraging Communication, Coping & Change. It is published by W. W. Norton & Co.

Here’s what people are saying about it.

“This book is an incredibly valuable resource for every clinician working with anxious children and their parents. Drawing from the cognitive-behavioral, functional analytic, acceptance, and mindfulness literatures, this book provides clear guidance and an abundance of clinical “pearls” for teaching parents how to create a healthy and resilient home environment.” —John Piacentini, PhD, ABPP, President, Society for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Director, Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders Program, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior

“What loving parent would not want to end the suffering of their child? Yet anxiety will run roughshod over families, taking advantage of responses that, on the surface, seem so caring. McCurry expertly elucidates for readers the tactics of therapeutic change that will stabilize the family system, empower the parents, and foster resilience in the child.”—Reid Wilson, PhD, co-author, Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents: Seven Ways to Stop the Worry Cycle and Raise Courageous and Independent Children

“Work with parents of anxious children is becoming richer and more nuanced as practitioners used to doing parent training, communication skills work, and traditional cognitive behavior therapy begin to use acceptance and mindfulness-based therapies as well. This wise and well-written volume will help provide that sense of nuance and balance. It is not a treatment protocol, nor is it dedicated to any one approach; it is a guidebook, helping you to use your existing skills in more sophisticated ways and to learn new skills and approaches without having to abandon what you already know. Highly recommended.” —Steven C. Hayes, PhD, Co-developer of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and author of Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life